Drawbacks to a Ketogenic Diet?

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Viridian1539

Day 22 Review

Calorie total: 1,068/1,730
Carb Count: 11g
Water Intake: 84 oz.

Changes:
- Continue water increase

Day 23 thoughts
Not much to report from yesterday, fairly standard day. Over Sunday/Monday there was a slight weight spike (gained 2 lbs over those two days) but then went back down to 182ish. Pretty typical of any weight loss to be non-linear though, so no concerns there.

Interestingly enough, even though I've lost quite a bit, my measurements have barely gone down at all. Part of this I blame on my not-so-consistent training schedule. Gotta get back to my daily HIIT stuff soon I think.

Today I've got Taekwondo again and will be trying to push myself. Testing is this weekend so I need to make sure I'm ready. We'll see if I hit that wall again that I seemed to find while running or how that goes.

AnnPT77

Viridian1539 wrote: »

Day 22 Review

Calorie total: 1,068/1,730
Carb Count: 11g
Water Intake: 84 oz.

Changes:
- Continue water increase

Day 23 thoughts
Not much to report from yesterday, fairly standard day. Over Sunday/Monday there was a slight weight spike (gained 2 lbs over those two days) but then went back down to 182ish. Pretty typical of any weight loss to be non-linear though, so no concerns there.

Interestingly enough, even though I've lost quite a bit, my measurements have barely gone down at all. Part of this I blame on my not-so-consistent training schedule. Gotta get back to my daily HIIT stuff soon I think.

Today I've got Taekwondo again and will be trying to push myself. Testing is this weekend so I need to make sure I'm ready. We'll see if I hit that wall again that I seemed to find while running or how that goes.

I can't remember whether you said you'd lost a material amount of weight before starting this? If not, IMU it's somewhat common to lose visceral fat disproportionately early in weight loss. Since that kind of fat sits mostly inside the body cavity, around the internal organs. If that's happening, weight loss can happen without much change in outside body measurements during that phase. If that's the case, visceral fat is particularly unhealthful, so losing it is a good thing.

Also, I know there's been discussion of losing water weight at first, and since that can be body-wide, that weight drop may not change any one measurement by much. Also, women particularly tend to have a whole-body layer of subcutaneous fat. (This is disgusting, but think about how much butter you could layer thinly over your whole body without adding much to the dimensions . . . multiple pounds, probably.) Losing those small amounts all over can be a number of pounds, but not many inches in any one spot.

I hope your energy level stays good for your Taekwondo testing. If your goal were keto for keto's sake (as opposed to keto as a Lenten discipline), you could consider timing some carbs before the testing (even during if permitted), expecting they'd burn off during testing and not materially disrupt the ketogenic state. I'm thinking that might not be compatible with your plans, though.

Best wishes - and including good wishes for successful testing!

Viridian1539

@AnnPT77 I had lost quite a bit over last summer/fall, crept all the way back up in Nov/Dec, then after Jan was stuck about 5 lbs down at ~195. Not entirely where that puts me on the weight loss phase But totally makes sense with losing all over and not seeing the inches, thanks for that insight!

Weekend Review
Passed the test! Energy levels were okay because there were about 50 of us doing it so we had to do things in phases, with plenty of break time in between. Won't know the specific results of how I did until class later this week though.

Spent so much time in the car yesterday and my back is still sore from it. I really think I need to get into stretching or yoga or something; both for my flexibility as well as for core strength to support my poor spine.

Keto wise, all has been good. Was at a gaming event last night where dinner was lasagna, and that was HARD because it's up there on fav pastas. But they also had a great salad with low carb dressing and cheese, so I filled up on that. Spent 15 carbs so I could try a small piece of the homemade garlic bread and it was 100% worth it.

Day 27 Thoughts
So silly me, because I don't go to a church that actually observes Lent anymore, I got mixed up on when Lent actually is. Sundays don't actually count in Lent... oops! So technically my 40 days would end a week early on Palm Sunday. I haven't decided if I'm going to stop then or just go right through to Easter. We'll see! It's going to depend on what my family is doing during Holy Week, because if we have a family dinner it will make more sense to transition off keto.

Today I'm zero carb until 5p. And then I'm going to my grandma's house because she wanted to have a granddaughter movie night. She was super excited to tell me that she's making mac & cheese, and since I'm not doing this because of an allergy/medical reason, I'm not going to turn her down. Should be interesting to see how I feel in the next few days following that.

Notorious_KGD

As a healthcare professional, I hear "keto" and cringe. I'm no expert by any means, but eliminating an entire macro group seems illogical and unsustainable. I believe it to be very helpful short term; however, long term consumption of high fat and high protein can cause lasting damage to kidneys and heart health. And the glaring issue is believing that keto diets are a license to consume fat without necessarily thinking about the type of fat so many eat entirely too many saturated fats. Spending a long time in ketosis is not healthy. Keto diets were used primarily for seizure disorders and even those didn't eliminate carbohydrates to the level that I'm seeing with people using ketogenic diets for weight loss. The diets for those with seizure disorders focused on balancing carbs with fat by maintaining a specific ratio, so in practical application... if you wanted to eat fruit, then you needed to also eat more fat to maintain the ratio.

SafariGalNYC

Viridian1539 wrote: »

Day 20 Review

The biggest drawbacks are the heavy restrictions, making it more difficult to participate in family/friend/work group activities involving meals. It's awkward to bring a completely different meal during work potlucks. Next I'd say is the lack of fruits. It's hard to find ways to incorporate them in without exceeding the 20g carbs per day. Those who do a higher level keto (I've seen people do up to 50) might have more room for that.
I'm also generally wary of sugar substitutes, so other than using swerve for one specific dessert recipe that I made to share with coworkers, I've been avoiding those. I miss having honey in my tea!

Those who enjoy/need keto, more power to you! There seem to be quite a few benefits (more stable energy levels, less frequent mood swings, weight loss, etc per my observations) which definitely speak towards it's helpfulness. Personally however, I think I'd rather stick with CICO tracking and while perhaps sticking to lower added sugars, I don't want to be avoiding fruits and veggies and meals I love just because it might help my energy a bit. But I'm one who - under correct bedtime routines - has very little trouble with energy.

Hope this thread has been informative so far! I'll keep trying to post and then I'll do a long, in-depth review primarily of the drawbacks to close it out (May be the day after Easter rather than day-of due to family events/traditions to observe).

If you are craving some fruits or veg .. 💡
here are the ones I typically include in a keto/low carb lifestyle.

For added greens - I typically do a 7 veggie shake with a blend of greens in morning that’s less than
6 carbs. It’s a blend of diverse greens.

Typically spinach, kale, tasoi, watercress as base.

If you are craving fruits—-

Some low carb fruits -
Açaí - 1 g per 100g
Starfruit - 3-4g per fruit
Shredded Coconut- 5 g per cup
Blackberries - 6g per cup
Raspberries 7 g per cup
blueberries- 10 g - half cup
Dragon fruit -10g - half cup
avocado - 8 carb per 100gram

I love my fruits and veggies… so long as I portion control I can get a good rainbow mix in and still keep myself low glycemic. I trend around 30-35 net carbs per day.

For 20 carbs / maybe some additional greens and berries? I use a lot of acai.

😉

Re group events… I do think it’s interesting seeing the cultural differences around the world in terms of food especially at gatherings. It is so dependent on one’s circle. Maybe you’ll start a trend.

AnnPT77

@Viridian1539, I'm glad to hear your energy level for the test was good, and that you got some breaks to help with that. Fingers crossed here that you'll get good news about results, later this week!

rileysowner

Notorious_KGD wrote: »

As a healthcare professional, I hear "keto" and cringe. I'm no expert by any means, but eliminating an entire macro group seems illogical and unsustainable. I believe it to be very helpful short term; however, long term consumption of high fat and high protein can cause lasting damage to kidneys and heart health. And the glaring issue is believing that keto diets are a license to consume fat without necessarily thinking about the type of fat so many eat entirely too many saturated fats. Spending a long time in ketosis is not healthy. Keto diets were used primarily for seizure disorders and even those didn't eliminate carbohydrates to the level that I'm seeing with people using ketogenic diets for weight loss. The diets for those with seizure disorders focused on balancing carbs with fat by maintaining a specific ratio, so in practical application... if you wanted to eat fruit, then you needed to also eat more fat to maintain the ratio.

Tell that to people who are healthy after eating it for 20 years. There are a number of them. Keto doesn't eliminate carbs, but it does severely restrict them to generally 20 to 30 grams a day. Frankly, when I did straight keto rather than ketovore, I ate far more low carb veggies than I did when eating the standard American diet. What we do know is that the standard American diet is extremely unhealthy for a vast and growing number of people unless they limit many components of it. Sadly, while meat consumption in the US is going down, all the diseases that have been blamed on meat continue to increase. There seems to be a cognitive dissonance in this area where diseases like type 2 diabetes can be put in complete remission, triglycerides dropped to extremely low level, and inflammation reduced simply by diet rather than having that same diabetes be a chronic progressive disease that requires constantly increasing medication and will eventually result in many other diseases because of that progressive nature. There is a huge cohort of people who have been eating Keto and even Carnivore for many years, and they are not all dropping dead from atherosclerosis or the like. The vast majority have fixed many issues for which medication did little to nothing to help with. Is Keto the only option? No. Is it one that can work? Yes. I personally don't find it any more difficult than I found counting calories. I do find the benefits far outstrip anything I experienced from counting calories in terms of health, so I will stick with it.

neanderthin

Notorious_KGD wrote: »

As a healthcare professional, I hear "keto" and cringe. I'm no expert by any means, but eliminating an entire macro group seems illogical and unsustainable. I believe it to be very helpful short term; however, long term consumption of high fat and high protein can cause lasting damage to kidneys and heart health. And the glaring issue is believing that keto diets are a license to consume fat without necessarily thinking about the type of fat so many eat entirely too many saturated fats. Spending a long time in ketosis is not healthy. Keto diets were used primarily for seizure disorders and even those didn't eliminate carbohydrates to the level that I'm seeing with people using ketogenic diets for weight loss. The diets for those with seizure disorders focused on balancing carbs with fat by maintaining a specific ratio, so in practical application... if you wanted to eat fruit, then you needed to also eat more fat to maintain the ratio.

No kidding.

Viridian1539

Thanks everyone for your insight and ideas!
@SafariGalNYC that list of fruits is super helpful. Veggies have been pretty easy to get in but not fruits.

I haven't entered yesterday's food into MFP yet so I can't tell you calories or anything like that, but so far no real difference from how I was feeling. We'll see if that continues. Weight also was basically the same this morning compared to yesterday. I've been trending at ~181 over the weekend and yesterday hit a new low of 180.4 so that was exciting.

Making a chicken cordon bleu casserole with broccoli tonight (minus the breadcrumb topping) and super excited for that. Otherwise just same old same old around here.

Viridian1539

It was a stressful week last week with work and home stuff and I didn't have time to post. Sorry about that!

Everything's just about the same though. I will be stopping the keto diet on Easter, so technically this will be a 47 day thing not 40. Doesn't really cause any problems via reporting though.

The one thing I can't manage to do is drink enough water. I think part of it is because my general go-to pre-Keto was to drink water when I felt hungry. Haven't found a successful sub for that.

Still trending around 181, but today jumped to 183. I think it was due to high sodium foods yesterday, but we'll see.

That's all I have for today!

penelopehatay

I tried the clean Keto diet and within a week I had more energy, a better mood and no sugar cravings. Within 10 weeks I lost 17lbs to weigh 152lbs. Then trauma came and I went back to my old, bad eating habits. Several years later I half-heartedly tried Keto again. I was confused by the many "Compromise Keto Plans", I didn't fully commit and I had no beneficial effects from it.
My conclusion is what I want to share: Keto is great if you want to commit to it. Carbs are everywhere, in all our favorite foods and feel-good extras. If you are willing to eliminate, sauces, snacks, sweets, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, etc from your diet, then you WILL be successful with Keto.

Viridian1539

@penelopehatay Thank you for sharing! Your conclusions and insight are very helpful

Day 38 Thoughts

I've not been doing great at tracking the last few days, owing to a very busy time at both jobs. I've been monitoring carbs but not tracking calories.

On a positive note, I have been tracking my water with my Fitbit, and I'm back to averaging around 100oz, so that's nice!

This morning I'm at ~11.5 lbs down from the start, if anyone is curious on weight loss data. After maintaining for a while, two days ago my weight starting dropping again.

When I resume eating more carbs, I think I'm still going to take some low carb principles with me. But after doing some research on the best balance for carbs, fats, protein, I want to explore eating with those guidelines and seeing how it works for me. I'll stick to most carbs coming from fruits and veggies, with the occasional bread or pasta. (And small indulgence into chocolate/ice cream, while managing portions).

I still think overall the best diet for myself is doing CICO tracking and eating a varied diet. I also know that actually eating at or above my BMR has been more effective in the past, otherwise I seem to start plateauing even in the face of exercise.

I'll do one final post next week with all the DOWNSIDES listed. Not as a negative nellie, just to wrap up the point of the thread and give condensed, collected answers to anyone with the same question.

Thanks to everyone who has been checking in and giving their own feedback!